Under 44 U.S.C. 3301, items like books, papers, maps, photos, and electronic files created or received in the course of federal business are part of a federal record, but certain categories are explicitly excluded. The key “except” is library and museum material kept only for reference or exhibition, and extra/duplicate copies kept only for convenience.

What 44 U.S.C. 3301 Says

  • A federal record is any recorded information, in any form (paper or digital), made or received by a federal agency in connection with public business.
  • It must be preserved or be appropriate for preservation as evidence of government organization, functions, policies, decisions, procedures, operations, or because it has informational value.

Items That Are Federal Records

Examples that typically are federal records include:

  • Official correspondence and email about agency business.
  • Meeting minutes, decision memos, case files, and policy documents.
  • Databases and other machine-readable files related to government work.

All of these, when created or received in the course of federal business and preserved or appropriate for preservation, fall under the statutory definition.

Items Explicitly Not Federal Records

Under 44 U.S.C. 3301, the following are not federal records:

  • Library and museum material kept only for reference or exhibition.
  • Duplicate or extra copies of records kept solely for convenience of reference.
  • Stocks of publications and processed documents (e.g., unsent bulk printed pamphlets sitting in storage).

So in a multiple-choice question framed as:

Under 44 U.S.C. 3301, all of the following are part of a federal record except :

The correct “except” choice would be something like:

  • “Library or museum materials maintained solely for reference or exhibition,” or
  • “Extra/duplicate copies of documents kept only for convenience of reference.”

How This Shows Up in Practice

Agencies and training materials consistently explain that:

  • Working copies and reference sets kept only for convenience are considered nonrecord materials, even if the original is a federal record.
  • The “record copy” (official version) is what must be managed under federal records laws, not every convenience copy.

Bottom line: in a test or quiz on 44 U.S.C. 3301, the “all of the following are part of a federal record except” answer will point to library/museum reference material or extra convenience copies, because those are expressly excluded from the statutory definition.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.